"Concrete Action" Resources

The following is a list of resources that either recommend or discuss concrete actions citizens can take against President-Elect Donald Trump. I have compiled this list using a mixture of my own research and tips I've received via social media groups and email. If you have something you'd like me to add, please contact me.

Contacting elected officials:

"We're His Problem Now" Calling Sheet - This document contains tons of scripts you can use to call your elected officials on many different issues. The authors also issue a weekly "call to action" through this document to focus calls, and provide contact information for every federal elected official.

Weekly Actions to Resist Trump - this tool is built on the "We're His Problem Now" Calling Sheet linked above. Each week, the site will suggest a priority for calls and for donations. It allows you to simply click a button to choose your action and location, and you'll get back a personalized script you can use for the call.

Who You Gonna Call, by Emergency Civics Lesson - Instructions for calling your representatives, as well as House and Senate leadership. Contains contact information for every elected official in Congress, searchable by state, and a series of short scripts you can use as a base. To use the page, enter your state into the search box.

GOVERNOR LIST - This is a list of every governor in the United States. It describes their stance on Trump, as well as contact information. The author encourages folks to write their governor and ask them to publicly denounce Trump.

List of Republicans who spoke out against Trump - A list of Republicans, sourced with prior statements about Trump, and connected to contact information. Useful for targeting calls towards those who have already shown some inclination to challenge Trump.

My Civic Workout - This is another site where you can sign up to receive action alerts, here in the form of a newsletter. A link to the November 21 newsletter is here. The newsletter is organized around one issue (this Nov. 21 edition is about Bannon) and they offer different levels of engagement - a "5 minute workout," a "10 minute workout," a "30 minute workout," and then a "second wind" which is a long-ish article.

wall-of-us - "Four concrete acts of resistance delivered to your inbox each week." They also post the suggested acts on their website.

Resistance:

What Do I Do About Trump? - The site has a wide variety of ways to resist, including a list of organizations to support, guidance for developing a personal action plan, resources to protect yourself, and calls to action. They also encourage people to sign up for an "Action Pod" - a group of friends that support each other in action. They've got many of the same resources as I have here, but honestly much prettier and much better organized, so check it out!

#GrabYourWallet Action Guide - A list of ways to use the above boycott list, including calling out the companies publicly telling them why you are boycotting, contacting them directly with your reasons, and spreading the word to your friends about the reasons for boycott. The doc also includes a few scripts you can use when contacting companies or talking about them in social media.

Proactive things to do to not be defeated by the next 4 years - this list of actions is grouped into various categories - time-sensitive actions, accomplice ("be an accomplice not an ally") actions for safety, political action, media action, donations and financial action, personal actions, local and ongoing actions, and protesting actions.

How We Resist Trump and His Extreme Agenda, by Congressman Jerry Nadler - Representative Nadler (D - NY) suggests several ways to resist a Trump administration, including anti-normalization strategies (e.g., writing letters to the editor, contacting elected officials, reaching out to friends and family) and engaging in activism (joining and supporting advocacy groups, support your candidates in Congressional races).

Rudimentary Guide to Action for Democracy and Human Rights - organized by areas of concern, including cabinet appointments and advisers, conflicts of interest, support for communities under threat, voter suppression, reproductive rights, environmental issues, healthcare, and freedom of speech/support for journalism. The doc also has links to lots of other resources.

Pantsuit Nation Resources - a site put together by volunteers, indexed by topic. Very comprehensive although the amount of information is daunting!

Concrete Suggestions in Preparation for January (by demographic) - This list, in both English and Spanish, was prepared by an attorney and contains ways that various demographics can protect themselves now. It includes suggestions for transgender people, other LGBT people, immigration issues, disability issues, reproductive issues, civil rights issues, and criminal justice issues. It also has suggestions for allies.

Education and resources:

Syllabus for White People to Educate Themselves - "We need to be thinking about how we are thinking about this election. This sense of comfort, of insulation from the horrors of America, is precisely what this syllabus is meant to disrupt. We, white people, clearly weren’t listening hard enough to people of color, to women, to queer people, to immigrants, to Muslims, to anyone who holds a marginalized identity. This did not come as a shock to many marginalized people. Instead, as a friend of mine put it: “I am hurt but my hurt comes mainly from having my fears proven. Not from surprise. I am so angry because there are so many people who needed this result to prove to them the divide of this country instead of listening to the voices of their token friends. Instead of hearing. Instead of trusting.” Now is the time to hear. Now is the time to educate and propel that education into action."

Trump Syllabus 2.0 - "This course, assembled by historians N. D. B. Connolly and Keisha N. Blain, includes suggested readings and other resources from more than one hundred scholars in a variety of disciplines. The course explores Donald Trump’s rise as a product of the American lineage of racism, sexism, nativism, and imperialism. It offers an introduction to the deep currents of American political culture that produced what many simply call “Trumpism”: personal and political gain marred by intolerance, derived from wealth, and rooted in the history of segregation, sexism, and exploitation."

The Stop Trump Reading List - A short list put together by an independent publisher of "resources to understand Trump's election, how we got to this point, and how we can organize to fight for a better world."

Teaching After the Election of Trump - Directed towards teachers, and provides teaching lessons to (1) Show how social movements have made important strides even during dark times; (2) Help students explore other moments in history when elites have mobilized to roll back racial and economic progress; (3) Highlight examples of “divide and conquer” politics; (4) Help students explore aspects of Trump’s agenda—immigration, the environment, Muslims, civil liberties, the press, and economic inequality.

Stay Nasty - This resource list is organized by state. I clicked on California and found upcoming events in the state, and links to initiatives on several different fronts (immigrant/refugee rights, religious/racial civil rights, reproductive rights, environmental initiatives, and other initiatives).